US Announces New Sanctions Against Iran Over Its Ballistic Missile Programme

The United States through the Trump administration just announced new sets of sanctions against Iran over the latter's ballistic missile programme. The said sanctions have something to do with economic penalties which targeted at least 16 individuals and entities deemed to have supported the transnational criminal activity or the illicit Iranian actors.

The US Treasury Department believed that these individuals played a great role in the above-mentioned crimes. This action and decision came one day after the Trump administration warned Iran was not adhering to the conditions set before its nuclear weapons agreement. It can be recalled that President Donald Trump has been a long-time critic of the said nuclear weapons deal last 2015.

According to CNN, the news sanction set by the US are not associated to the conditions in the said nuclear deal which originally Iran has been complying with and the Washington sees no problem regarding that. Instead, the new sanctions have something to do with means to target the proliferators of weapons of mass destruction as well as the supporters of such activity.

With this, the report also added that the new sanctions will target the individuals and groups which the US claimed have supported the military of Iran or the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or the IRGC. It was then reported that what prompted the US to announce the new sanction was because of reported three networks which have been supporting Iran's military procurement.

It was reported that these three networks have been supporting Iran's development of unmanned aerial vehicles and military equipment. Moreover, these groups likewise supported the production and maintenance of the fast attack boats.

Apart from the above-mentioned sanctions, this will also target businessmen who performed theft of US and western software programmes which reportedly were sold to the government of Iran. With this, the US shall freeze any assets these targets might have in the US. Further, the US government will also stop it citizens from doing any business with these targets.

The US further claimed that the penalties and sanction will continue to target Iran's suspicious activities as well as the latter's ongoing support of terrorism, human rights abuses and their ballistic missile programme. The Trump administration will also continue to pressure Iran to stop its missile programme.